By AFP WASHINGTON: Released after 12 days in custody, Egyptian cyber activist Wael Ghonim kissed the soldiers who had kept him blindfolded and given him the occasional beating. “I removed my blindfold and I said, ‘Hi,’ and kissed every one of them,” the Google marketing executive for the Middle East said in an interview with …

By AFP CAIRO: Freed Egypt activist Wael Ghonim arrived at the epicenter of anti-regime protests in Cairo on Tuesday where he lauded hundreds of thousands of demonstrators who welcomed him as a hero. Protesters surged towards him, many weeping, clapping and shouting: “Long live Egypt, long live Egypt!” The young Google executive was released on …

What General David Petraeus said in his testimony before the Senate s Armed Services Committee on March 16, and the manner in which his statement was quoted, represented and interpreted, must be understood within the context of the charged atmosphere in Washington regarding US-Israel relations and the Israel-Arab peace process. The president of the United …

CHICAGO: The lawsuit filed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission against Goldman Sachs for securities fraud, charging the bank with misrepresenting the way a collateralized debt obligations (CDO) had been formed, has revived public disgust at credit default swaps (CDS), the instrument used to bet against these CDOs. Before the 2008 financial crisis, CDSs …

Six sharp-tongued, witty spoken-word artists from both the western world and Egypt stood side by side on Thursday at the Cairo Opera House’s lawn area, for one off-kilter poetry recital. Titled “Poetry Jam, the event – organized by Goethe Institute in Egypt, the Swiss Embassy and the Austrian Cultural Forum – aimed to initiate a …

JERUSALEM: Covered faces, stones and tear gas – this was the scene on the streets of east Jerusalem in last month’s “day of rage declared in response to the opening of a synagogue in the Old City’s Jewish Quarter next to the Al-Aqsa Mosque. In the weeks that followed, Jerusalem refused to leave the headlines …

JERUSALEM: The inevitable clash between the historical narrative of the Jews and their attachment to the land and that of the Arabs citizens of Israel takes on many forms. The one aspect of this clash which stands out above the rest, possibly because it comes up often on Israel s Independence Day, is the attitude …

ISTANBUL: Will the recent rapprochement between the United States and Syria mark a new era in Syria’s international standing? Syria can hope for two major changes following the restoration of full diplomatic relations with the US. First, it will be removed from America’s informal blacklist of “Axis of Evil countries, which will substantially improve its …

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania: When is a terrorist not considered a terrorist? When the US media identifies him or her as a “Christian . And when is a terrorist group not considered a terrorist group? When the US media calls it an anti-government militia . Exceptionalism is alive and well when it comes to reporting on violence …

JERUSALEM: It is a well-known fact that Israel s calmest border is its border with Syria. However, this calm can only be considered a tense ceasefire. It is clearly in the interest of Israel and the international community to strive for a positive peace agreement between Israel and Syria. Lately Syria has begun to show …

PARIS: Some countries are naturally at ease with the concept and the reality of strategic power. Such was clearly the case of France under Louis XIV, the Sun King in the seventeenth century, and such is the case today of China, whose leadership is comfortable with the balance-of-power games of classical Europe. India is clearly …

CAIRO: In May 2008 I interviewed Egypt’s Minister of Trade and Industry Rachid Mohamed Rachid for a special supplement we were preparing for the World Economic Forum in the Middle East in Sharm El Sheikh. The interview covered a wide range of topics, and inevitably touched upon the rising dissatisfaction of blue and white collar …

WASHINGTON, DC: Except for a casual mention of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian lands and the tensions they recently caused in US-Israeli relations, my Passover Seder last week was very spiritual – another adventure for this Muslim. After 9/11, as some Americans started to learn more about Islam, I embarked on a journey to learn …

LONDON: Dramatic challenges, and mediocre responses: that is the history of the European Union. All too rarely does the EU rise to the level of events, which is why Europe is fading economically and geopolitically. The 1958 Treaty of Rome, which established the European Economic Community, was Europe’s great leap forward. But the decision to …

LIVERMORE, CALIFORNIA: There are numerous aspects to the United States-China relationship – some currently contentious, others cooperative. One area that presents an opportunity for cooperation is energy policy and climate change, because the two countries’ account for more than 50 percent of total coal consumption, while their combined share of both global greenhouse-gas emissions and …

MOSCOW: In Russia, somewhere behind every event lurks the question: Who is to blame? In the tragedy that claimed the lives of Polish President Lech Kaczynski and 95 other Polish leaders, we can answer that question with certainty in at least one respect: history is to blame. The event is so hideous that it seems …

OTTAWA: Across Europe, discussions are taking place about what local Muslim women wear – specifically the niqab (face veil), burqa (a garment that covers the body, head and face) and the hijab (headscarf). More recently the debate has been taken up in the Canadian province of Quebec. And, as in Europe, the discussion tends to …

TEL AVIV: US President Barack Obama is pro-Israel, even though he does not shower Israel with love on a daily basis, as was the case during 16 years of pampering under Clinton and Bush. In addition, the president does not mutter at every opportunity how deep America s commitment is to Israel s security and …

TOKYO: US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev just signed a major new nuclear arms control treaty in Prague. The world’s great nuclear powers will meet this month in Washington and next month at the United Nations to discuss additional cuts. This is good news for everyone, everywhere. But neither the US-Russia agreement, …

BEIRUT: Since the general elections in Lebanon last June, which kept the Western and Saudi-backed March 14th alliance in power and ushered Saad Hariri to the premiership, there has been an air of appeasement among the country’s political leaders. This mood among politicians should be seen as a window of opportunity. Parliamentary and electoral developments …

JERUSALEM: Ever since the Obama administration insisted upon the settlement freeze, the Israeli public in general and religious Zionists in particular have been concerned (again) with the issue of whether religious Zionist soldiers and officers in the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) would obey orders to reinforce US policy. This question is not just an internal …

CAMBRIDGE: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown promotes it as a vehicle for creating high-skill jobs. French President Nicolas Sarkozy talks about using it to keep industrial jobs in France. The World Bank’s chief economist, Justin Lin, openly supports it to speed up structural change in developing nations. McKinsey is advising governments on how to do …

NEW YORK: China’s willingness to join negotiations on potential sanctions against Iran and to send President Hu Jintao to a nuclear security summit in Washington this month are important preliminary steps towards taking more responsibility in managing international affairs. But merely joining conversations or showing up for meetings is not enough. Given its growing profile, …

NEW YORK: For a wisp of a moment, it seemed as if the two-state solution had been taken off life-support. Still bedridden, to be sure, but no longer leaning at death s unlocked door. The ideological one-staters had been emboldened by the rising numbers of tired two-staters who had abandoned the cause not out of …

ISLAMABAD/ROME: A closer look at the pattern of Pakistani immigration to Italy and integration into Italian society indicates that it’s the distance – and not the difference – between the two cultures that has proved to be the most stringent barrier in cultural integration. It is words like terrorism, burqa and war that Pakistan is …

CAMBRIDGE: When the United States Congress approved President Barack Obama’s plan to extend health-care coverage to nearly all Americans, it marked the most important social legislation the country had seen since the 1960’s. While Republican opposition remains strong, the law was a major domestic political victory for Obama. Its enactment also has broader implications, because, …